Konstantin Bernhard von Voigts-Rhetz

Konstantin Bernhard von Voigts-Rhetz

Konstantin Bernhard von Voigts-Rhetz

Konstantin Bernhard von Voigts-Rhetz (born July 16, 1809 in Seesen , † April 14, 1877 in Wiesbaden ) was a Prussian infantry general .

Life

origin

Konstantin Bernhard was the son of the Forestry, Government and Department Council Victor Friedrich August Wilhelm Arnold von Voigts-Rhetz (1775–1841) and his wife Dorothea Juliane Karoline, born von Uslar (1782–1865). His brothers William and Julius were also generals in the Prussian army .

Military career

Voigts-Rhetz attended high schools in Bückeburg and Minden . On October 7, 1826, he joined the 9th Infantry Regiment of the Prussian Army as a musketeer , where he became second lieutenant on February 12, 1829 . Between 1833 and 1835 he attended the General War School and was then transferred to the Topographical Office in 1837 . In 1839 he was assigned to the General Staff and in 1841 promoted to captain . Voigts-Rhetz became surveyor in 1844 and then joined the General Staff of the V Army Corps as a major in 1847 . In this capacity he distinguished himself during the March Revolution of 1848 in Poznan , where he was able to suppress the uprising. In doing so, however, he got into a dispute with the royal commissioner in Posen, General von Willisen . He then wrote a “file-like account of the Polish insurrection ” (Posen 1848), which in turn prompted Willisen to write an “open letter” ( Berlin 1848), to which Voigts-Rhetz published an “answer” (Berlin 1848).

In addition, Voigts-Rhetz wrote a memorandum on the political position of the Province of Posen in relation to the Prussian monarchy and the national entitlement of its Polish residents (Berlin 1849).

In the next few years he worked for the General Staff of the 1st and 4th Army Corps as well as the General Staff . In September 1852 he became Chief of the General Staff of the V Army Corps . In this position, took place on March 22, 1853 was promoted to lieutenant colonel , and on July 12, 1855 , Colonel . As such, Voigts-Rhetz was then from June 15, 1857 to May 3, 1858 commander of the 19th Infantry Regiment . He then received command of the 9th Infantry Brigade and was promoted to major general on November 22, 1858 . On January 20, 1859 he was transferred to the War Ministry in Berlin , where he took over the post of director of the General War Department . At the same time Voigts-Rhetz was also president of a commission for the revision of the legal provisions on the care of military personnel from sergeant down in civil life. From June 12, 1860 to January 23, 1863 he was in command of the Luxembourg Fortress , then received command of the 7th Division and was promoted to Lieutenant General on March 29, 1863 . On October 17, 1864, he was appointed Commander in Chief of the Federal Garrison in Frankfurt am Main .

During the German War of 1866 Voigts-Rhetz was appointed Chief of the General Staff of the 1st Army under Prince Friedrich Karl Nikolaus of Prussia . In this position he played a major role in the successes at Münchengrätz , Podol and Gitschin and especially at Königgrätz . After the war he was appointed governor general of the new province of Hanover and commander of the newly formed X. Army Corps . After the successful organization of the Prussian administration of Hanover, he stepped down to the rank of commanding general .

During the Franco-Prussian War of 1870/71, Voigts-Rhetz led the X Army Corps with great success. He fought, among other things, in the battles near Metz , Vionville-Mars-la-Tour (August 16), in the enclosure of this fortress and later on the Loire with great honors and received a grant of 150,000 thalers .

After the peace agreement, Voigts-Rhetz remained in command of the X Army Corps. In 1873 he said goodbye because of an illness.

family

Voigts-Rhetz married Eleonore Wilhelmine Munich (1842–1895) on July 4, 1861 in Grevels near Luxembourg . She was the daughter of the bâtonnier of the lawyers of the Luxembourg court Franz Karl Munich. The marriage remained childless.

Honors

Voigts-Rhetz has received several awards for his longstanding services. On April 18, 1871 he received the honorary citizenship of the city of Braunschweig and on May 9, 1871 of his native town of Seesen. Fort Moselle of Fortress Metz was named Fort von Voigts-Rhetz on September 1, 1873. On January 27, 1889, Wilhelm II gave Infantry Regiment No. 79 the addition of "von Voigts-Rhetz" to its name. In Osnabrück, Braunschweig and Hildesheim the von-Voigts-Rhetz-Straße was named after him in 1914 . In Braunschweig the street was renamed “Karl-Marx-Straße” after the end of the First World War and is still called that today.

Voigts-Rhetz was also the holder of the highest orders and decorations . So he was u. a. Knight of the Black Eagle Order , the Pour le Mérite with Oak Leaves and the Grand Cross of the Red Eagle Order .

Fonts

• Record-based representation of the Polish insurrection in 1848 and illumination of the political and military questions that arose from it. With the permission of Sr. Excellency of the commanding general . W. Decker & Comp., Posen 1848. Digitized

literature

• Wilhelm v. Willisen : Open letter to Major von Voigts-Rhetz as a reply to his representation in the files. Duncker and Humblot, Berlin 1848.
• Reply to the open letter from Major General von Willisen to Major von Voigts-Rhetz. Printed as a manuscript. Schade, Berlin 1848.
• Kurt von Priesdorff : Soldier leadership . Volume 7, Hanseatische Verlagsanstalt Hamburg, undated [Hamburg], undated [1939], DNB 367632829 , pp. 189-194, no. 2232.
• Horst-Rüdiger Jarck, Günter Scheel (Ed.): Braunschweigisches Biographisches Lexikon. 19th and 20th centuries. Hannover 1996, pp. 634-635.

Web links

Commons : Konstantin Bernhard von Voigts-Rhetz  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• Bernhard von Poten :  Voigts-Rhetz, Constantin von . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 40, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1896, pp. 216-220.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ City chronicle honorary citizen of the city of Braunschweig, period from 1860 to 1879 on braunschweig.de
2. ↑ Alphabetical list of street names , Hildesheim City Archives